This gentleman was looking at the ground for what seemed like ages, i waited and took the shot just when he looked up. I have no idea what his name is but i like the sound of Alvaro, he smiled afterwards so all was well.

I keep seeing this on the front page and I keep clicking on it. The story behind it makes it more interesting, but the story that the viewer imagines upon seeing Alvaro's face WITHOUT the back story is the important part, and that which makes it wall-worthy. This is one to print out in my opinion, and I'll extend another congratulations for that, as it doesn't happen very often.

Congrats on the ribbon, John. I meant to comment during voting but didn't get a chance to come back to it. This is a portrait that actually seems to make a connection to me, and most photos of people I don't know don't do that. I am impressed that you caught it candidly.

Wow... Great photography. You certainly have guts to do this. I have done this in the past taking pictures of people but I often feel like a scoundrel doing it, like I stole something from the person. Something i suppose I have to deal with but cant do this freely. Glad he gave you the nod of approval

Glad this made the top five.
Lately, I'm finding DPC to be a bastion of terrible or unoriginal photos on the front page. This was one of the rare shots that made me take a second look. Normally portraits of random people have to be extremely interesting in order to warrant longer glances. This has that quality.

Despite all the interesting focal points in this image, I find it easy to let the eye wander and stop wherever, unchecked. I can only chalk that up to fantastic compositional detail. Very well done indeed!